Rosewood smuggling allegations turning into a political row in Kerala

The rosewood tree smuggling allegation in Kerala is snowballing into a political row with the Opposition party Congress accusing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of having links with the accused.

Congress senior legislator P T Thomas on Thursday came out with a photograph of accused Rogi Augustine shaking hands with Vijayan at a function. Thomas said that the picture was taken during a function in 2017.

Though Thomas earlier alleged a nexus between Vijayan and Roji, who was earlier involved in a scandal over Mango mobile phones project, Vijayan on Wednesday had denied it in the Assembly and sought apology from Thomas. It was in reaction to it that Thomas came out with the photograph.

Meanwhile, sources in the CPM said that a connection of some senior Congress leaders with Roji would come out soon. His bother Anto Augustine, who is also an accused, was close with many BJP leaders also.

Even an affidavit filed by the state government before the Kerala High Court on Wednesday said that things that have already come out was just the tip of the iceberg. The court also declined the plea of the accused to quash the cases against them.

Hundreds of rosewood and teak tress at many parts of Kerala were axed on the basis of a government order issued in October 2020 allowing farmers to axe all trees in land assigned to them, except sandal, even as the norms did not permit felling of around 10 varieties of trees including teak and rosewood. The order was withdrawn in February 2021, following widespread protest. By that time around 500 trees worth crores of rupees were already axed. Already rosewood trees worth Rs 15 crore was recovered from Wayanad.

As the accused are maintaining that they axed the trees on the basis of the government order, a detailed probe into the circumstances in which such an order was issued by the government is likely to be launched. There were also reports that even as some revenue officials informed the government of the flaws in the order, the government did not swiftly rectify it.